Former UArts dance instructor could be deported due to school closure

With dreams of becoming an artist, Turkish-born dancer Su Güzey immigrated to the only U.S. city she had ever visited — Philadelphia.

Güzey, now 33, moved to Philly in 2021 after being accepted into UArts’ MFA in dance. While pursuing her master’s degree, she began teaching as an adjunct assistant professor in the dance program, and performing in university-funded productions to help boost her resumé. She volunteered for several local productions and performed at the Philadelphia Fringe Fest.

With the school’s unexpected closure in June, Güzey lost her job and faces a threat far greater than unemployment — deportation. “I’ve had challenges in my life, but I never felt freezing and full despair as if everything was going to go wrong,” said Güzey, who completed her master’s program while at UArts. “It triggers my nervous system in a way that I have never felt before. I don’t like this feeling.”

As former UArts students, staff, and faculty members protested, Güzey was rushing to submit job applications. She had 60 days to find another job in academia in order to maintain her visa status, an almost impossible task given how few academic appointments are made during the summer.

Güzey still doesn’t know if she will be forced to uproot her life in Philadelphia, leaving her home in Fishtown, her career and friendships behind.

“I don’t want to generalize people’s experience when they are migrating from home, but the feeling of home is something you desperately seek,” Güzey said. “It’s not a space that you create. People make a home for you, and the people I’ve met have made Philly home for me.”

Even though the UArts’ dance program is moving to Vermont’s Bennington College the program’s new incarnation will have no full-time faculty but will use a roster of part-timers and visiting artists. With no full-time academic job on the horizon, Güzey is pursuing an O-1 nonimmigrant visa, commonly referred to as an “artist visa,” which could grant her an extended stay in the country.

“It’s just very complicated, and the place I’m in now is because I have looked at possible routes to stay, and this is the only one,” she said.

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, O-1 visas are given to an individual “who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics ... and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements.”

Güzey is confident she fits the bill. The only issue is funding.

She needs $5,000 to pay lawyer fees and submit her petition, an astronomical sum for a recently laid-off immigrant artist who’s been struggling to find paid gigs.

To fundraise, two of Güzey’s friends encouraged her to start a GoFundMe campaign, which has raised over $3,000.

“It’s beautiful to see [the support], and it proved my point that I found a home,” she said. “The support and care are undeniable.”

Her friend Jim Anderson, a graphic designer who creates under the name GRIMGRIMGRIM, said it’s “disappointing” to see artists like Güzey have to go to these measures because UArts shuttered its doors. He fears other creatives, too, will continue to be abandoned.

“It’s insanely f — d up,” Anderson said. “I don’t think people really realize the weight of it. The city wants to promote itself as some sort of cultural hub, but yet, they are helping kick people out that want to do good stuff here.”

Güzey said she and her lawyer are handling procedures as best they can, but “everything depends on how well the immigration office is going to respond,” she said. “At this point, we don’t know, and we have so much evidence based on my past experiences in the field. But again, it all depends on how they are going to see it.”

She doesn’t know whether it’s hope or stubbornness, but Güzey said she’s beyond the anxiety-ridden phase. She’s prepared for a more positive outcome, instead of the “bumpy road of pain” she’s been on the past two months.

“I don’t have any more anxiety attacks,” she said. “I have the strength to work on these things more and to fight for my rights. I deserve to stay here, and I have the skills and the experience to offer something to the arts community.”